IJWTRQ Chapter 109

“How are you?” Tan Yan asked with concern.

Liang Xian shook his head and said: “It’s okay, just a little headache, I took a bet just now, and luckily it worked.”

Tan Yan asked: “What are you betting on?”

“Bet on a time gap,” Liang Xian explained, “I use my own strength to counter the force field attached to the wall, and it is bound to cause a lose-lose situation. But if I only use part of my strength and the other part to protect my brain, there is a high probability of defending against the reaction of the force field. And if you get me out of that building before the reaction breaks through my defenses, there’s hope I’ll survive, or rather, my brain will survive.”

“It’s too risky.” Tan Yan said unhappily.

“Not a risk, you’ve never failed, I believe in you.” Liang Xian looked at Tan Yan intently, “Trusting you with my life, I’m at ease.”

Tan Yan’s heart was slightly touched, but he couldn’t tell what kind of feeling this was. But now is not the time to study his own mentality, he quickly told Liang Xian what he found after escaping from the White Tower.

After hearing this, Liang Xian thought for a while and asked: “What was the reason you finally chose to return to the wildlife conservation area instead of trying to leave it?”

“I think there may be more terrifying things waiting for us at the border, and we may not be able to escape.” Tan Yan said, “Moreover, if I just leave like this, it is equivalent to giving up those innocent people without even trying, if I just leave like this, I may never be able to get over my own barrier.”

“Running to the border may not be able to escape, and staying here is also very risky. Both are unknown, so why not give it a try, I would have chosen the same way.” Liang Xian said.

After hearing his words, Tan Yan was slightly relieved.

He knew he was a bit too soft-hearted because of his past experiences. After meeting many young people, Tan Yan knows words such as ‘Holy Mother¹聖母 shèngmǔ: Chinese internet slang, a sarcastic, possibly pejorative term for “bleeding-heart” politically correct women. More information, Baizuo 白左 báizuǒ, a derogatory Chinese neologism used to refer to Western liberals and leftists and to their values, especially in relation to refugee issues and social problems.‘ and ‘White Lotus²白蓮花 báiliánhuā: “white lotus flower”, metaphor for a pure, innocent and harmless person; (sarcastic, slang, especially of a female) one who appears sweet and innocent but is actually corrupt, cunning or deceitful.‘, he doesn’t think he can afford these Internet terms, but he also understands that sometimes insisting on saving people will kill more people, and that good intentions can be a bad thing.

Liang Xian is better at this than Tan Yan, although he is young, he already possesses the decisiveness of a decision-maker. When can be saved, then save, and when it’s impossible, he will make the choice that cannot be said to be the most correct but must be the most appropriate. In the zombie world, Liang Xian saved half of the people by such decisiveness, and also chose to give up himself at the last moment, but saved everyone.

Tan Yan believes in Liang Xian’s decision, and with his approval, Tan Yan feels the motivation to persevere.

Don’t know since when, Tan Yan, who has always been fighting alone, began to learn to rely on his companions; Liang Xian, who has been under the protection of Tan Yan, has gradually gained the courage to fight alongside him.

“The people in the White Tower are looking for us, but the intensity doesn’t seem to be strong.” Liang Xian analyzed, “It’s strange that they just let people in the wildlife conservation area check each other’s bracelets, and didn’t send people to search from house to house. Given the extent to which the people here are brainwashed and controlled, no matter what ‘Tian Shen’ does to them, these people will not resist, if someone comes to search, they should welcome it warmly.”

“When waiting for you to wake up, I kept wondering what ‘Protected Animals’ and ‘Wildlife Conservation Areas’ mean.” Tan Yan said, “I thought about the protection of animals in our world, it seems that… the treatment is similar to that of people here.”

Don’t have to do anything every day, food will be brought when needed, and the food nutrition is reasonable, but it may not be what the animals want to eat today; When reaching the right age for reproduction, a mate will be provided, but the age and number of children will be controlled as much as possible for the sake of optimal reproduction; Will take into account all the living habits of the protected animals and provide them with a suitable living environment as much as possible, and also provide amenity facilities; If sick, they will be treated, and they will receive the education that animals should receive.

Living comfortably and without danger, gradually treating the staff who imprisoned them as their parents for food and clothing, which will lead to dependence.

This is the protection of animals in the real world, and it is also the human beings in this world.

“When we were in the White Tower, we never received any physical attacks, and what attacked us was always the ‘Mesmerizing Light’.” Liang Xian analyzed, “I guess, this ‘Mesmerizing Light’ seems to be something like an anesthetic, but what it attacks is not the nervous system, but the consciousness. According to the performance of ‘Wei Chenxi’, this should be a beam of light that can make the consciousness dormant, if it’s just a deep sleep, it will not cause substantial damage to the body and brain. In real-world conservation areas, anesthesia is a means of protection against sick or out-of-control protected animals.”

The two shuddered at the same time, could it be that the so-called ‘Tian Shen’ is really protecting human beings?

“Whether it is protected or not depends on the external environment.” Liang Xian said, “How many people there are in the wildlife conservation area?”

“If we only count this residential area, I took a rough look and found that there are about three to four hundred villas, according to the standard of a family of four, one husband, one wife, two children, even if all the villas are fully occupied, there won’t be more than a thousand people.”

“The protected area three we were in before had about a hundred safety cabins, and there were ten protection areas in the White Tower, it’s full, there will be a thousand people, and we also have to subtract more than one hundred fifty people from the real world, that is, only eight hundred people.” Liang Xian calculates, “This wildlife conservation area looks huge, but in reality, there are only about two thousand humans.”

This number is similar to the number of existing giant pandas in China in the real world.

A race of seven or eight billion people, if there are really only two thousand people left, then it is indeed a special-level protected animal.

The human race is protected by the so-called ‘Tian Shen’, even if they are lucky enough to survive, can they really be called human beings?

The reason why a nation can survive is not only the people, but also the culture, language, customs and history, without these things, the soul of the nation will not exist.

Tan Yan, who has experience in bringing subway survivors back to the real world, said: “In fact, more than two thousand people are not very easy to manage, apart from the bracelet, they must have other methods to control human beings, the people in the wildlife conservation area may also under surveillance.”

But knowing this is of no use to solving the immediate crisis, the enemy is too strong, and there are only two of them, their abilities are also limited to death, it seems that no matter how they go, it will be a dead end.

“Since it’s a dead end, let’s just give it a shot.” Liang Xian said, “There must be a contact point for Tian Shen in the wildlife conservation area, the protective measures there must be weaker than the White Tower. We find the place and try to seize it, if we can’t seize it, we’ll sneak in. At least figure out what is going on in this world before deciding what to do next.”

Whether to escape or save others, it’s in this gamble.

In this desperate situation, Tan Yan agreed with Liang Xian’s viewpoint. They went around the house again and found the answer after Liang Xian turned on the computer in Chen Xiao Xuexi’s bedroom.

The facilities in the White Tower prove that the technology in this world is far more advanced than in the real world, but the computer in Chen Xiao Xuexi’s room is still the operating system they are familiar with. As with animal protection, computers and TVs are only amenity facilities. The technology of ‘Tian Shen’ far exceeds the level of computers, so they allow humans to use computer networks that do not pose a threat to them.

Since there is a network, they can definitely find out the management plan of ‘Tian Shen’ for the wildlife conservation area.

Liang Xian found the map of the wildlife conservation area after typing a few times on the computer keyboard, and found that there are three ‘Shrines’ here.

The interior of the shrine is open to the public and people often go to ‘Worship’. After Chen Xuexi discovered that his son had bad thoughts, he also sent Chen Xiao Xuexi to the ‘Shrine’ first, and then the people in the ‘Shrine’ transferred Chen Xiao Xuexi to the White Tower.

“That’s weird… look at these photos.”

Tan Yan leaned over to look at the photos Liang Xian found on the Internet, they were all pictures of the ‘Shen’s Messenger’ in the ‘Shrine’, these ‘Shen’s Messenger’ were exactly the same as the people holding weapons in the White Tower, all wearing white protective clothing and helmets on their heads, and their faces cannot be seen at all.

A guess arose in the minds of the two at the same time.

“Protective clothing is only human-shaped, but it may not be human inside.” Liang Xian said, “They use clothes to hide their true identity and give people a sense of racial identity, in fact, they are like humans in panda costumes, only with the appearance of a panda.”

“There is another possibility,” Tan Yan thought for a while, and speculated, “Clothes are also a kind of protection, their bodies cannot be exposed to the external environment, in other words, the environment adapted to human existence may not necessarily be suitable for them.”

“During the special alert in the White Tower, there are reminders, for everyone to wear protective clothing.” Liang Xian recalls his previous experience in the White Tower, “In other words, the protective clothing can defend against the ‘Mesmerizing Light’, and this kind of clothing is most likely clothing made for consciousness!”

At this point in the investigation, it is clear what to do next.

The two found out at night that the environment outside the wildlife conservation area simulates the living environment of human beings, with day and night.

After waiting for a while, the artificial night came, and when it was the prescribed bedtime, the two sneaked out of Chen Xuexi’s house.

The night may not affect the vision of ‘Tian Shen’, but the two are still used to moving at night.

There was hardly any obstacle along the way, and ‘Tian Shen’ seemed to think that humans in the wildlife conservation areas were safe and harmless. Even if there are ‘Two Wild Animals’ who escape to the wildlife conservation area, ‘Tian Shen’ seems to be more worried about the impact of the ‘Wild Animals’ on the ‘Protected Animals’ than about catching the two people.

Therefore, the TV only broadcasts to confirm whether the people around them are ‘Wild Animals’, and doesn’t enter the human living area to disturb their daily life.

The two of them approached the ‘Shrine’, there were two white-clothed guards outside the door, Liang Xian said in a low voice: “I just observed that bracelet, it seems to be able to record human heartbeat, blood pressure and other things, if we don’t have a bracelet, it will be considered fake immediately. But if we die, the bracelet will have no information, and they will not be able to identify us.”

In other words, the next thing they have to do is play dead.

Liang Xian asked Tan Yan to hide his breath in the darkness, while he ran to a place not far from Tan Yan, raised his hand and shouted to the guards of the shrine: “Help, help!”

After finishing speaking, he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead.

This behavior seems silly, but at least it can lead the guards out of the shrine.

Regardless of whether the guards believe him or not, as long as his consciousness is not blocked, Liang Xian is confident that the two of them will not be caught.

However, the sense of crisis of the guards of the shrine was less than Liang Xian expected, they didn’t even leave a notification into the shrine, but both ran to Liang Xian who was pretending to be dead.

The moment they arrived, Tan Yan threw out the prepared rope, controlled the rope with consciousness to tie up the two guards, and dragged them into the corner.

It went unbelievably smoothly!

• 1
  聖母 shèngmǔ: Chinese internet slang, a sarcastic, possibly pejorative term for “bleeding-heart” politically correct women. More information, Baizuo 白左 báizuǒ, a derogatory Chinese neologism used to refer to Western liberals and leftists and to their values, especially in relation to refugee issues and social problems.
• 2
  白蓮花 báiliánhuā: “white lotus flower”, metaphor for a pure, innocent and harmless person; (sarcastic, slang, especially of a female) one who appears sweet and innocent but is actually corrupt, cunning or deceitful.